Forums

They’re rather barren at the moment; consider them fertile grounds for you to grow a garden of conversation. We’ll be posting more there soon and will be using it as the primary method for interacting with the community going forward. We’re really looking forward to chatting with you all in more depth as we make the journey to launch together.

On another note, we’ve received several pieces of fan art that would be great to post in the forums. If you have submitted fan art to us before, please register for the forums and re-post them on the Fan Art board — we’d do it ourselves, but we want you to get the credit for it :)

Surveys

Very soon every backer will be getting a survey for info related to your reward(s). This may include everything from the name you want listed in the credits, to your preferred email address, to shipping address.

IMPORTANT:The email address you provide in the survey about reward info will need to match the email address you use to register on the forums. This is so that we can properly grant Alpha/Beta access, and their exclusive forum area(s).

Due to Kickstarter's process we can only send one survey per tier so we’re going to have to collect all information up front, even though it will still be some time before we send physical rewards out. Keep in touch through ks@pixelscopic.com if you need to change any information after the fact! There are a few questions at higher tiers that we will ask via email — specifically if you are featured in the game as an NPC or are submitting other in-game content ideas.

But anyway (and most importantly), the moment we've all been waiting for...

Classes

We’re excited to announce the six classes we’ve sketched out for backers to vote on for inclusion into the game! (You can vote if you're at the $25 tier or above). We’ve listed below our current concepts regarding each class’s backstory, weapon, and general mechanics. But these are subject to change based on further development, testing, and Alpha/Beta player feedback.

Out of these 6 proposed classes, you will be able to vote for 3 in the backer survey, and we’ll take the top 3 classes for inclusion in the game! Everyone gets these classes in their game at launch.

We’ll be announcing those last 2 classes in our next update, along with the results of your vote for the 3 extra classes!

So what happens to any classes that don’t get voted into the game? And why only do 3 out of the 6 ideas we have? Well each class takes a LOT of time to develop — doing the art for all 8 facing directions, plus animation, plus weapons and effects... and then doing the programming / scripting / balancing to make the class work in the game. There is a chance we could someday add the other class ideas in an update or expansion to the game if there is enough interest and support after the game is released. Or we might even add other classes too, who knows!

Remember, you’ll get 3 votes in the survey we send out — and yes, you can use all three to vote for the same class if you really, really, really want to make sure it gets added.

A few quick notes on the general mechanics involved in classes:

Each class has a preferred weapon type which can be equipped for permanent use. Classes can use weapons other than their preferred type, but only for a limited number of attacks.

A class’s Charge Attack results after holding down the attack button for a specified amount of time and then releasing.

A class’s Special Ability is charged over time through various unique mechanics — these are currently TBD for all classes, but examples may include collecting gold, killing enemies, running at top speed, etc. The ability itself is activated by a separate button when the meter is charged.

Bard

Usually cheery in demeanor, Bards live for performance and praise. They have a reputation of manipulating others with the magic of their music — causing joy and despair, love and fear, or even confusion to get what they want.

Beastkeeper

Beastkeepers possess a heightened attunement to animal life and have a healthy respect for the power of natural creatures. They have been known to tame beast companions through little-understood inherited magic, and have enhanced abilities to summon mystical companion pets. (Think 2-player Companion Mode!)

Huntsman

Huntsmen are stoic, precise, and master tacticians and trackers. Living for the thrill of the hunt, these stalkers care more about the fur and meat of their quarry than admiring any sort of beauty or power of the prey they kill. Rely on setting the field to their advantage before a battle.

Assassin

Consummate professionals, Assassins are trained killers with a loyalty tied only to their contract. Despite their grim trade, Assassins are largely amoral and view killing as their job — one that demands their skills be honed to deadly sharpness.

Elementalist

Elementalists are blessed (or cursed) with the ability to draw out and direct the raw power of their surroundings. Often treated as dangerous outcasts because their abilities can manifest randomly, they are spurned by most towns, thrown in prison, or simply killed... but those in power respect and rely on their skills. They tend to live in the wilderness for obvious reasons.

Planned Future Updates

We’re developing a tentative schedule for updates in various locations to keep in contact with everyone as development on Delver’s Drop progresses. Below is a list of updates and outlets that we plan to use in the coming weeks and months:

That’s it for now! Surveys requesting info about your specific reward tier (and notably asking for your class votes) will be going out in the next week or so. Let us know if you have questions through the comments below, or by emailing ks@pixelscopic.com... but we also hope to hear from you on our forums!

Comments

i still sad that then is no Murkromancer but like idea of the Elementalist aslo were be able to move stone rock in map use as his weapon. like he use his mind power shoot rock in to bad guy.
(of this make no sence i sorry )

@mrwisker - we had a lot of ideas, and even a few sketches for other classes, such as a murkromancer, swordsman, bandit, cleric... but in the end we had to choose just 6 of them for voting. I'm sorry if we disappointed you with the murkromancer not being in the group. We were just trying to choose a balanced set of class mechanics and abilities, as well as what we thought people would be most interested in voting on.

@EOPE42 -
Bard - I like the idea of the bard's musical shots being configured in specific directions / angles depending on the instrument. I think so far we'd only been talking about semi-random angles (though focusing in the facing direction obviously), so that's a really good suggestion!
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Beastkeeper - Just to clarify, you will be able to use companions (and the 2P companion mode) as any class. But the Beastkeeper may have special perks related to this, or may be able to summon more companions, or summon them more often.

Bard: So long as the musical effects are a bit like the Knight in chess ie can use in odd spacial arrangements with even odder effects?!

Beastmaster: Adds another interesting play-mode with the pet and possible 2-player coop - has got to be a good package to include? Also the whip reminds me of the castlevania main weapon which was ace. I think whip could be really fun weapon.

All the other classes seem cool tbe eg spear and so on, but possibly the

Assassin: More of a stealth class and speed to dodge out of trouble might be a really rewarding gameplay style.

A question was posed on the forums that bears answering here as well. In short, it wanted to know what would become of the 3 remaining classes that don't make the voting cut. Is the KS-specific class drawn from the leftovers? What about the classes added because of our $2k backer? Answers!:

A very good question! Let me clarify (and I'll make sure someone posts an update on the KS page as well):

- The 6 classes for voting are their own pool; 3 of those will be included in the game based on the voting. The remaining 3 might be added in later content updates, but for now we're working on the assumption that they will remain on the cutting room floor.

- The Kickstarter class is a separate character from any in the pool of 6 voting classes, and we'll be unveiling this a bit further down the road.

- The class that is being added because of the generous $2k donation is being developed in conversation with that backer, and will be unique from both the pool of 6 votable classes and the Kickstarter class.

We've had a fairly large list of class ideas from the beginning, and have essentially selected those that we feel have the most potential for story and interesting gameplay and then split some of those out to be decided by the voters. Once we're further down the road, we'd like to do a post discussing some of the other, less-defined ideas we had with some of their rudimentary concept work.

@Doomspeaker - yes, good idea about having a forum thread! We have one that popped up about favorite classes, but you may want to start another one for a more technical discussion. Link to the one that's up: http://forums.pixelscopic.com/lively-discourse/which-class-is-your-favorite/----
Bard - yes, the sound waves are mid-range, and work kind of like projectiles but with a bit larger hitbox. They might move slower than say an arrow or a fireball though. We will have a ton of status effects she can cause based on weapon type + perk tree
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Templar - The dash may be more of a speedy shield bash to get out of danger if the Templar is surrounded, since the spear is a very precise weapon and not as good for lots of enemies. So you guessed correctly! But that's just my current thought, we'll see what happens as we prototype :)
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Beastkeeper - Familiars will be in single-player. For the 2 player mode, they are just controllable by the 2nd player but have the same mechanics and role in play as they do in single player. The whip will have a bit of swing to it, so a larger hit box than the spear. Might be a litte shorter though to compensate. The Stampede will probably be a large group of familiars - and familiars could be anything from phantom dogs to fairies, but mostly animal-ish in nature.
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Huntsman - Interesting thoughts on the Huntsman. the trap mechanic will probably vary based on your perk tree - so at first maybe they are temporary, and later they last longer or become permanent? We would like to have a variety of trap types, but I'm not sure if that will be via the perk tree or another mechanic just yet. And he does look a bit hobo-ish I think :D (this is Baker writing). It would be fun to play that up in the story!
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Assassin - Yes, the Assassin would be very fast and offensive. You will have a wide sweep for the two weapons, but you have to get in really close to be effective. And we do want the specials to have some defensive perks for other classes, so maybe we'll add something to the ones who are more offensive (possibly through the perk tree?)
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Elementalist - we do want this to play pretty different from the Sorcerer. Think of them as a bit closer to "magic melee" with their shorter range. They will also have more interesting cascading effects due to elements, where the Wizard will have a lot of wands that shoot just regular "magic missiles" with no elemental strength. So yes, we may have to do balancing to differentiate them. I personally don't want Wildfire to be too much of a smart bomb - more like a slow but very widely spreading attack. Something other players in 4-player deathmatch could see coming and run out of the way if they are good enough. But I do agree that this might be the least developed class in terms of specials - they are just "bigger" versions of the main attack. Definitely something for us to work on if he gets voted in :)

Thanks for the bi-weekly updates on KS - I don't always have time to stop by and read forums, but I do check emails a lot. All the classes look good, but I play a mage when I can, so I hope Elementalist makes it.

I'd post this on the forum, but I don't see a thread so it goes here instead.

The Bard: Are the sound waves mid range or close combat (multishot kind of implies ranged)? A class based on status effects sound very good. Hopefully the bard will turn out to be the Morbol of Delver's Drop! This class "coolness" depends of what kind of statuses you will descide to use.

The Templar: Spears are a very intresting addition to the game. I'm not sure if a dash ability makes that much sense so an class armed with a spear (you already deal damage on a horizontal/vertical line), unless the Templar can use this to plow through a group of enemies.
Good to see that you included regeneration so that the special ability fulfills two roles at once.

The Beastkeeper: This one offers an interesting mechanic. Familiars seem like a strong mechanic, that hopefully works for single player as well. The whip seems similar to the spear (Guess it can be used more frequent), but it comes with a usefull pushback ability. Stampede makes me curious. What kinds of creature do you get to sommon for this?

The Huntsman: First of all, it's a long ranged class, something that is important for the variety of playstyles. Rapid fire/Spread shot are a nice choice for charged attack because it allows you to controll you damage output (I'm thinking of weak point enemies here). I'm not sure if traps can compete with the sheer force of other special abilites. Do these stay for a fixed duration or are they one time trigger?
PS: Somehow the name Hobo-Huntsman got stuck in my head. Don't let that discourage you Baker Ryan, his final design looks very fitting for a true huntsman (very remiscent of The End of Metal Gear Solid 3).

The Assassin: This seems to be the "hack 'em to death" class. Dual blades and spin seem designated for a very offesive playstyle (projectiles seem to be a nice bonus here). The special ability falls into the same category as the Templars: It doubles as defensive and offensive utility.

The Elementalist: This class is the only one that doesn't seem to work for me. Mainly because he/she seems to similar to the Socerer (we don't know much about him). The staff seems like the wand, but the area blast seems devastating. Wildfire unlike the rest of the special abilies seems very narrow in use (a smartbomb ability, damaging every monster on screen).

I know the Assassin get voted in (the ninja always wins). So that leaves me to decide on the rest of the lovely crew.

I'll think about it depending on what answers I get. My current votes will go as followed:

FYI - as for power, we're going to balance all the classes against each other as much as possible so that the 4-player deathmatch is really fun and fair. So ranged attacks may require a bit more "wind up" before they fire, or have slightly more cool among classes down after firing. Just stuff for us to think about as we work on prototyping them :)